Here’s a fun folk tune arranged for solo ukulele. This tab is of Nancy Spain by Christy Moore.
At one point I had a Skype student interested in playing Irish/Celtic folk arranged for ukulele. I’d figure out his requests in a simple solo fingerpicking style (when the melody and harmony is played together on one instrument) which you now see here. The “lilting” rhythm of this style seems like an ideal genre for teaching finger style ukulele.
Nancy Spain is a tune written by Barney Rush and made popular by Christy Moore. Here’s a live performance of the song:
The tune is very simple, but demonstrates the basics of the solo fingerpicking style about as well as any other song I’ve played on ukulele. Especially in this key, the player is able to focus on the concept of playing chords and melody simultaneously instead of struggling with difficult fingerings.
The harmony added on the 1 and 3 beats keeps the pulse of the song going and the melody works its way around the chords to create a nice, full sound. More about solo arranging.
To hit all the melody notes and keep the chords balanced you need a low G string.
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